Oracle is planning to buy DataRaker in a move that will give it a cloud-based platform for analyzing data from smart meters used by energy utilities. Terms of the deal, which was announced Thursday, weren't disclosed.

Smart meters and the massive amounts of information they generate are frequently linked with the industry buzzword "big data," which typically refers to unstructured data formats. Oracle's pending acquisition of DataRaker ties into a broad movement by software vendors to sell products that customers can use to crunch these data sets for valuable insights.